I promised to post images of the focusing system I build for the camera lens,

so here it goes.

Focusing system from top.

image about whole imaging system

The Business end of the lens

Accurate focusing is needed doe the very fast lens. At f2.8 the sharp focus zone is about 20/1000 mm! Focusing by hand is a pure Lottery.
I have TCF-s focuser and its temperature compensated, so thereis no need to refocus
every time when temperature drops.

The focusing system has been build from the scrap metal and some parts found from

the drawer.

Its very easy to move the focuser back and forth between main scope

and the lens.

There is a right size can lid bolted down to a L-shape body.

Focuser is then atattched to the lid.

In a focuser, there is a brass tube. This tube goes back and forth when focuser moves.

Its then rotate the focuser ring of the camera lens. There is peace of fine sandpaper glued

to the tube to prevent slipery, tube has allso a spring load for the same purpose.

I have used TCF-s focuser but it can be any focuser, even manual one!

It will make focusing easier and less random.

The whole project took about three hours of time and cost 50c (I had to buy

some bolts)

The whole assembly is then attached to the dowetail rail at top of the LX200 scope.

This is a second version.

The firs version was made by blywood, but I made it again with metal doe
flexsure problems.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

After playing with 3D stuff I returned back to real astro imaging.
Last night was allmost full Moon and doe that I selected the target from opposite side of the sky.
IC 1396 was about 30-36 degrees above horizont during the capturing.
IC 1396 is a large emission nebula. Image scale fits well with field of view
of Canon FD 200mm f2.8 lens. There is lots of faint nebulosity around the field.
Dark nebulas, visible in image, are dark hydrogen clouds and
they are blocking light from background stars.
One part of the large nebula is a famous "Elephant's Trunk Nebula", seen in lower
part of the image.

I was doing stereo pair from Glaxy M81 and I needed to correct the galaxy to "flat"
(perspective correction)
The shape of the galaxy is more visible by that way, I think. Anyhow funny looking
transform.
I can now make a grayscale hight map out of this corrected image.
When corrected bitmap is projected back to the 3D surface, I have a model of galaxy.
Now it's possible to freely rotate the object and selext any vantage point to observe.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Parallel Vision version
Cross Vision version
This beautiful object in the core of IC1805 nebula and star cluster,
really shines out in stereo.
It feels like more details are visible when both eyes recives visual information
with some angular difference?!?
Viewing istructions, see previous posts.

Sample image for Parallel vision method.
I had an idea, how to create stareo pair images from
2D data by using real 3D software.
First the grayscale image, with suppressed stars, is turned to hight map
by using shades of gray as an indicator.
Based on this model I created 3D mesh. Original image with color information is then
projected to this surface.
After that I'm able to take images from this object with small angular difference.
Now I have two images and needed spatial information.
An other new innovation was to use several iterations of "minimum" command under PhotoShop to select stars with different brightnes.
now it's easy to manipulate star distance accuratetly.

Sample image for Cross Vision method
PARALLEL VISION ISTRUCTIONS:
In parallel freeviewing the image for the left eye is on the left and the image for the right eye is on the right. You stare into the screen so that your eyes are aimed (more or less) parallel. As you stare into the screen you will get double vision as each eye sees the L & R images separately. When you are staring in at the right distance the middle two images will overlap and become 3d. The outer two images will remain and will still be 2d.

CROSS VISION INSTRUCTIONS:
In cross eye freeviewing the image for the left eye is on the right and the image for the right eye is on the left. You stare at a point about 1/2 way to the screen so that your eye's gaze is crossing at the half way point. Thus the left eye sees the correct image which is on the right. As you cross your eyes the image will go double. When your eyes are crossed the correct amount the middle images will overlap and be in 3d. The two outer images will remain and will be in 2d.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

This image is from same night than M51.
In this area, there is so many dim edge on galaxys for some reason.
At the time I shoot this group, the elevation was low, between 24-30 degrees.
That has some effect to the sharpness, but there is still some details visible in central galaxy.
Just above NGC 4216, there is a Bluish object. I was not able to recodnice it. It could
be a comet? At the time span of 2h 45min. it does not appear to move, or it moves very
small amount. (I think there is some minor trailing visible in the closeup image)
Exposures:
11 x 900s = 2h 45min. + Flat and Bias farmes
Telescope:
LX200 GPS 12" + FR f6.4
Guiding:
SXV-AO and LodeStar guider
Object I ment in previous text is marked here with lines
UPDATE:
This is fast!
I just uploaded the image to the Cloudy Nights forum and right a way
FrankZ posted information about this object!
"TheSky 6 tells me that this is IC 771 (PGC 39176)!
Type is spiral galaxy. Found in the Catalog of principal galaxies (PGC)."
Thanks a lot Frank!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Objects in the space are three dimensionals, but doe the huge distance we see them

flat, without 3D appearance.

To reveal "true" nature of this object I made 3D-stereo image pair from it.

This supernova remant now looks like an expanding sphere in the deep space.

Parrallel vision image pair

Cross vision image pair

PARALLEL VISION ISTRUCTIONS:

In parallel freeviewing the image for the left eye is on the left and the image for the right eye is on the right. You stare into the screen so that your eyes are aimed (more or less) parallel. As you stare into the screen you will get double vision as each eye sees the L & R images separately. When you are staring in at the right distance the middle two images will overlap and become 3d. The outer two images will remain and will still be 2d.

CROSS VISION INSTRUCTIONS:

In cross eye freeviewing the image for the left eye is on the right and the image for the right eye is on the left. You stare at a point about 1/2 way to the screen so that your eye's gaze is crossing at the half way point. Thus the left eye sees the correct image which is on the right. As you cross your eyes the image will go double. When your eyes are crossed the correct amount the middle images will overlap and be in 3d. The two outer images will remain and will be in 2d.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Gropped area from M13. The extended exposuretime reveals more and more dim stars around
the core.

After I was shooting Sh2-240, I moved to M13.
This is a second tryout at this season.
Weather was ok to shoot with 200mm lens, but with2000mm situation was different.
Very bad seeing and since I shoot from very center of the city, there was lots of heat current from buildings.
M13 altitude was between 30 and 45degrees. Moust of the frames are shooted trough not so thin clouds.
This time I composed image so, that I was able to placea litle galaxy, NGC 6207, at the same field of view.
There is 5 x 10min and 11 x 5min, unfiltered subs used in the image.I allso add lights from previous tryout, 7 x 15min, IDA filter. Total exp. time is three and half hours.Camera: QHY8, telescope: LX200 GPS 12", Guiding: SXV-AO+LodeStar.
Image is scaled down

Ps.

The "Shadows and Highlights" tool under Photoshop is great for targets like this!

I can pull out dimmer stars as much as I like without blowing up the core.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

This is a false color image of the Sh2-240.
Image of the object with no stars was added as lighten mode to the Red channel,
under PS.

h-alpha image.

This is really difficult target!
I can see effects of light pollution here, even with 7nm H-a
filter. Bad gradients etc...
This time I shooted 4 X 3600s = One hour subs!
My record so far. Longer subs are needed to bring out very
faint structure of this object.
So far there is about 7h exposures, I thin an other 10 hous is needed here.
I'll shoot more when weather allows.

Inverted version

This is a version with no stars (image processing trick)
to bring out the structure better. This image was used to make a false color image.

3D converted astro images in different formats

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